The first-term board examinations for Classes 10 and 12 will be conducted offline in November-December, and the date sheet for the same will be announced today(October 18). The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said the exams would be objective type and the duration of the tests will be 90 minutes. The exams will start at 11.30 am instead of 10.30 am given the winter season.

They are bifurcating the academic session, holding two term-end exams and rationalising the syllabus as part of the particular assessment scheme for Classes 10 and 12 board exams in 2021-22 announced by the CBSE in July given the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CBSE is offering 114 subjects in Class 12 and 75 subjects in Class 10. “The CBSE has to conduct the examinations for a total of 189 subjects. If the tests are conducted for all the subjects, the entire duration of the examinations would be about 40-45 days. Therefore, to avoid learning loss of students, the CBSE has decided that the subjects offered by it will be divided into two parts — major subjects and minor subjects,” Bhardwaj said.

In 2021, the CBSE had to cancel both Class 10 and Class 12 board exams and declare results using an alternative method, as conducting exams was not feasible amid the second wave of COVID-19.